Many Polynesians came to Utah hoping to rear their children in Zion. Instead, they found their children joining gangs.
"A lot of parents that came from the islands weren't ready for this," said Kisa Kinikini, 19, a former member of the Tongan Crip Gang.In a session on Polynesian gangs at the annual Utah Gang Conference Friday, Pacific Islanders and former members of Polynesian gangs talked frankly about Polynesian culture and gangs.
The first Polynesians came to Utah as converts to the LDS Church in 1875. Since then Utah's Pacific Islander population has grown to more than 33,000. About 85 percent of them came because of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Why so many Tongan, Samoan and Hawaiian youths have turned against their parents and joined gangs is a mystery, even to the former gang members.
Kinikini said he joined a gang because popular music, movies and television shows made gangs enticing.
"I wanted to be in a gang because it's cool," he said.
Rosie Unga, a female gang member born in Hawaii, agrees. "That's the only reason kids want to be in a gang, because they want to be like older kids."
But Taina Satini, 20, the former leader of the Krazy Rose Park Queens, wasn't quite sure why she joined a gang. It wasn't because she didn't have family support. "My mother stuck by my side," she said. "She never gave up on me. Or because she was a poor student. "Most of the time I was up there at the top of my class with a 4.0," she said. And she doesn't think the disproportionate number of Polynesian teens in gangs has anything to do with racism.
When asked why she joined a gang, Satini answered, "I seriously don't know. Even though I'm out of it, I don't understand it."
Lloyd Sapiga, who's been out of a gang for more than a decade, said the close-knit Polynesian family can't be blamed.
"They have great parents, hard-working parents, but the kids chose that lifestyle," he said.